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This Week In Public Health: How E. Coli Snuck Into Our Cookie Dough, Alcohol Calorie Counts Elusive

Karen Shakerdge

This week: It's not eggs that are making you sick if you eat raw cookie dough, at least lately -- it's flour. HOW many calories are in that beer? And a dying man's last wish to donate his organs leads to a fight. These and more ...

Cookie Dough Blues: How E. Coli Is Sneaking Into Our Forbidden Snack Surely it's the eggs, right? Wrong. Flour is itself a raw, uncooked food, and it's making dozens of people sick around the country as people ingest tainted flour. So how can you protect yourself? It needs to be cooked before you eat it. Dan Charles reports for NPR's The Salt blog.

A Dying Man’s Last Wish Ends In A Fight To Donate His Organs He wanted to donate his organs, to give other people a chance for a longer life. To do this, he’d need to go off his breathing support in a hospital, and that's where the fight began. For Side Effects, Karen Shakerdge reports.

The Hidden Calories In Your Booze Explained In Three Charts Unlike companies that make food, brewers, distillers, and winemakers aren’t required to disclose calories and ingredients on their cans and bottles There have been some gains, however. Some companies say they'll include calorie counts on their products by 2020, and the public health community is pushing for more. Writing for Vox, Julia Belluz has this story.

Single Mom's Search For Therapist Hampered By Insurance Companies "Even people who had insurance complained of barriers to care. Some said they still couldn't afford it; some were embarrassed to ask for help. Others just couldn't get through the red tape." KQED's April Dembosky reports on one mother's search to find therapy for her son and herself. Read the story here.

Teaching Future Doctors About Addiction Jonathan Goodman recalls skipping class months earlier. Reviewing his syllabus, he realized he had missed the sole lecture dedicated to addiction medicine. Schools have been so slow to change that some medical students have started conducting their own training on how to buy and administer drugs that reverse the effects of an overdose. California Healthline's Natalie Jacewicz reports.